Budget 2017: Hope Capital responds

He said: “The cut in dividends and the rise in National Insurance payments equates to a tax hike, estimated by the BBC as being up to £2billion.

“This could well hit both brokers and developers, many of whom are small businesses. The risk, where developers are concerned, is that where many invest their own money, they will now potentially have less money to put into new projects which will affect the amount they can borrow. “

“The worry is that this is the start of a trend of business bashing that the Chancellor is embarking on which could ultimately affect the level of development that takes place, with a knock on effect on the number of new houses built or refurbished by smaller developers – at a time when the Housing White Paper said that this is an area that the government wanted to expand.”